


Food for the Soul(mate)

by leftennant



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bakery, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Soulmarks, Soulmates, fydlexchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-23
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-22 17:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6088834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftennant/pseuds/leftennant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where your soulmate is revealed by a special mark on your wrist, Darcy Lewis discovers hers is practically an angel.  (Although he prefers to be called Falcon)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Food for the Soul(mate)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thestanceyg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thestanceyg/gifts).



> This is a Darcyland Galentine's Day fydlexchange gift for the amazing [thestanceyg](http://thestanceyg.tumblr.com/). I've never written Darcy/Sam, so I'm crossing my fingers that I got it right. Also, it's not exactly a bakery fic, but I made sure one was in there. I hope you like it!!!!
> 
> ************************************************

Every day Darcy went to the bakery at the corner of the block for fresh bagels, and every day she missed her soulmate by mere seconds.

The first time, it was lemon poppyseed, and he walked in less than a minute after she left. The second time she missed him, she ordered cranberry crunch with cream cheese, Jane’s favorite. Her soulmate had come and gone exactly sixteen seconds before she walked in the door. Darcy had an odd, exhilarated feeling the entire time she was ordering...like something very important to her was closeby, but just out of reach.

The third time, they actually passed by each other through the doorway, close enough to touch, but just missing by bare inches.

She was distracted all day. Jane had to prompt her five times to hand over the data she’d gathered on her trusty Starkpad. Then when she did, she didn’t wait until Jane had a decent grip on it, and it almost tumbled to the floor. 

“Are you feeling okay?” Jane asked, brow furrowed in concern. “You seem...off. I mean, usually I’m the one who forgets to eat, and your bagel has been sitting there for since nine o'clock this morning collecting dust.”

Darcy eyed the bagel for a moment, and wrinkled her nose. “Yeeeah. I’m not really hungry. You can have it.”

“You’re giving me your bagel?”

“Yes I am.”

“Okay. You’re sick,” Jane said decidedly.

“I’m not sick,” Darcy insisted.

“Medical. Now. And send Ian down here on your way up. He’s better than nothing.”

Darcy sighed and got up. She definitely wasn’t sick, but there was no way Jane would lay off if Darcy didn't make the short trip upstairs to visit Helen Cho. A short time later the doctor confirmed that there was nothing wrong with Darcy...except…

“Have you always had that on your wrist?” Helen asked, turning Darcy’s hand over to her show a small, light blue mark that looked sort of like a bird.

“Had what on my what?” Darcy managed to pull her head out of the clouds long enough to check out the mark, and her jaw dropped. “What the fresh fuck??? Is that what I think it is?”

“I believe so. It’s very light, though. Have you noticed the color increasing at any time recently?”

“I haven’t noticed it, period. Not before just now, anyway.” She stared at the mark, still feeling a sense of disbelief. 

“Well, that sometimes happens if you don’t make contact with your soulmate the first time you meet. It flares up the closer you are, and fades as you move away from each other.” Dr. Cho studied the blue lines carefully for a moment, and then said, “Whoever it is, they’re in the building.”

Darcy sat up, pulling her wrist out of the doctor’s hand. “Shut up. Are you serious?”

“Mmhm. They must be. It’s a large facility, but the mark is still visible. I’d say they’re within a few floors of you right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Darcy said, hopping off the table. “I’ve got to go do things. Things that require an elevator. Right now.”

Dr. Cho laughed. “Good luck, Darcy. I hope you find them today, but if not...well, they have to work here, right? You can’t access these levels without clearances, and they clearly have them.”

“Oh, I’m gonna find them,” Darcy responded. “I’ll just follow the little blue bird.”

It was easier said than done. No sooner had Darcy gotten in the elevator, than the mark began to fade. Within moments it was barely visible.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she said, kicking the doors. “Soulmate, what the hell are you _doing_?”

Needless to say, she didn’t find them that day. She didn’t find them the next day either. In fact, more than two weeks went by with no visible change to her now-empty wrist. Wherever her soulmate was, they weren’t close enough to register their presence. That worried her a little. She hoped they were okay.

It was an uneventful Wednesday morning in the lab when Darcy caught sight of the bird again. It was faint, but growing stronger by the second. She leapt up excitedly, and rushed over to where Jane was bent over a page full of complicated equations.

“Hey, look!” she said, pushing her sleeve up further, so Jane could see the mark. “Soulmate alert!”

Jane glanced down at Darcy’s wrist and smiled. “Well, at least you know they’re okay. I wonder where they’ve been all this…” Her sentence was interrupted by the sound of an incoming text, and Jane picked up her phone to see who it was. “Thor’s back!” she said happily. “They just got in a minute ago, and...oh my god. Oh my god, Darcy! How long has the mark been missing?”

Darcy thought back for a moment, trying to count the days since she was in Cho’s office. 

“Seventeen days?” she guessed.

“Eighteen,” Jane corrected. “It was the 25th when I sent you down there. Last month had 31 days. Do you know what this means?”

“You’re way better at math than I am?” Darcy said, rolling her eyes. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s a given. You’re an actual rocket scientist, Jane...with like, degrees _plural_.”

“No. Darcy. How long has Thor been gone?”

“I don’t know...eighteen days? What does that have to do with… HOLY SHIT THEY’RE AN AVENGER!” She shouted the last bit so loudly that Ian jumped up where he was filing something, and whacked his head into a shelf. “Oh, crap. Sorry Ian,” she said. “My bad. But seriously. _Seriously_ , this can’t be right. It has to be something else. Like, maybe they’re one of the other agents who went along, or some kind of, I don’t know, mission support person.”

“Nope,” Jane said. “The mission was Avengers only. No one else went.”

The mark was steadily growing brighter on her wrist, and Darcy exchanged a look of amazement with Jane over that fact. “Which ones?” she asked breathlessly.

“Steve Rogers, Tony Stark…” Jane began.

“Both disqualified due to current soulmate situations,” Darcy interrupted. “Next.”

“Barton…”

“Nope. I’ve been around him plenty of times. No bird. Although it does sort of make sense.”

“Thor, but he’s taken,” Jane said.

“Yeah. I’m kind of aware of that,” Darcy replied dryly. “Who else?”

“Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson,” Jane finished, and then she glanced up at Darcy, face lighting up. “Sam Wilson, who is otherwise known as…”

“Falcon,” Darcy breathed, eyes fixed on the tiny bird tattooed across her skin.

Jane was outright grinning by this point, she rapid fire texted for a moment, and then said, “You should go. Thor says they’re heading into a debriefing meeting upstairs right about now, and you can catch him in the hall.”

“What? Oh, yeah. Yes. Oh my god. I can’t believe this is happening.”

Darcy spun around, and headed for the door, eyes still fixed on her soulmark. Halfway up in the elevator it suddenly flared brilliant, turquoise blue and then rapidly faded away again.

“What the shit?” She twisted her wrist, lifting it up level with her eyes, and frowning as it lightened even further. Was he going _down_ in the other elevator? SERIOUSLY? What about the debriefing? “Nope, nope, nope. You aren’t getting away that easy.”

As soon as the elevator hit her designated floor, she hit the button to send it down to the lobby. The doors opened again at the third floor, and she immediately hit the button to close them again on the people waiting. 

“Sorry,” she called to them. “This elevator is out of order due to totally official soulmate business.”

The lower the floor, the brighter her mark got. As soon as it hit the lobby, she was slamming the button to make the doors open. 

“Come on, come on…” Darcy chanted impatiently. The mark was fading again, and she’d be damned if she didn’t catch him.

He wasn’t in the lobby. She caught a fleeting glimpse of a well-muscled back in a leather jacket disappearing through the front doors, and began threading her way around the crowd going in and out in an attempt to catch up to him. Once she got out on the street, she realized he was lost in the throngs on the sidewalk. Darcy had two choices. Either go back inside, and wait it out until he returned, or play hot and cold with the soulmark until she hit the jackpot.

She chose the latter.

Precious minutes were wasted as she first walked up one end of the block, only to find the mark fading away. She whipped around, jogging in the other direction, and it started to glow with color again. Bingo. For the next ten minutes she kept it up, chasing after the color lighting up her mark. Finally Darcy found herself standing in front of a very familiar shopfront, and all the pieces fell into place.

She could see him standing at the counter. His back was to her, but she knew instinctively it was Sam. With shaking hands, Darcy pushed the door open, hearing the little bell jingle as it were from a long distance away.

As if he could sense her presence, Sam turned around, and a huge smile lit up his whole face. He raised his right arm, tilting his head slightly as he pulled the sleeve back to reveal the imprint of a rose on the inside of his wrist.

“This wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?” he asked. The sound of his voice washed over her, and sent her blood fizzing in her veins.

She held up her own arm to reveal her mark, and said, “I think so. Darcy Rose Lewis.”

“Well, now it all makes sense. And I’m damn glad it does, because Barton has been giving me hell about the flower. That a bird?”

Darcy felt a smile tugging up the corners of her lips as she told him, “I think it’s supposed to be a falcon.”

He laughed, warm and rich with his head thrown back. Somewhere deep inside she could feel a magnetic pull to be near him. It was simple to close that distance, and moments later she found herself occupying his space. Sam reached out, lightly brushing his fingers over her cheek.

“Darcy Rose Lewis,” he said. “I was here buying you something to eat. The plan was to bring it back, track down my soulmate, and get to know them over lunch.”

“It’s a good plan,” she replied. “I love lunch.”

Sam nodded, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Me too. What do you say, soulmate? Want to pull up a table, split a panini, and discuss the rest of our lives from here on out?”

Darcy reached out, threading her fingers through his. Nothing had ever felt so right in her life.

“Absolutely.”


End file.
